Method of determining occlusion based visibility for volumetric video streaming

ABSTRACT

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a device, that includes a processing system including a processor and a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations including receiving a manifest for a point cloud, wherein the point cloud is partitioned into a plurality of cells; determining an occlusion level for a cell of the plurality of cells with respect to a predicted viewport; reducing a point density for the cell provided in the manifest based on the occlusion level, thereby determining a reduced point density; and requesting delivery of points in the cell, based on the reduced point density. Other embodiments are disclosed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/825,645 filed on Mar. 20, 2020, which claims thebenefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/965,022 filedon Jan. 23, 2020. All sections of the aforementioned applications areincorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The subject disclosure relates to a method of determiningocclusion-based visibility for volumetric video streaming.

BACKGROUND

Recent advances in wireless technology, such as millimeter-wave 5G, havefueled a wide range of emerging applications. Among them, mobile videostreaming plays an extremely important role. Volumetric video streamingis one of the key enabling technologies for mixed reality (MR) and willbecome a key application of 5G. The volumetric video market is expectedto grow significantly soon. Major video content providers have startedto investigate commercializing volumetric video streaming.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are notnecessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limitingembodiment of a communications network in accordance with variousaspects described herein.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating an example, non-limitingembodiment of a system functioning within the communication network ofFIG. 1 in accordance with various aspects described herein.

FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating an example, non-limiting embodiment ofidentifying visible points in a point cloud by an algorithm implementedon a mobile device functioning within the communication network of FIG.1 in accordance with various aspects described herein.

FIG. 2C depicts an illustrative embodiment of a method in accordancewith various aspects described herein.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example, non-limitingembodiment of a virtualized communication network in accordance withvarious aspects described herein.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example, non-limiting embodiment of acomputing environment in accordance with various aspects describedherein.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example, non-limiting embodiment of amobile network platform in accordance with various aspects describedherein.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example, non-limiting embodiment of acommunication device in accordance with various aspects describedherein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The subject disclosure describes, among other things, illustrativeembodiments for reducing data transmission when streaming volumetricvideo (point cloud) data based on occlusion. Other embodiments aredescribed in the subject disclosure.

One or more aspects of the subject disclosure include a device, thatincludes a processing system including a processor and a memory thatstores executable instructions that, when executed by the processingsystem, facilitate performance of operations including receiving amanifest for a point cloud, wherein the point cloud is partitioned intoa plurality of cells; determining an occlusion level for a cell of theplurality of cells with respect to a predicted viewport; reducing apoint density for the cell provided in the manifest based on theocclusion level, thereby determining a reduced point density; andrequesting delivery of points in the cell, based on the reduced pointdensity.

One or more aspects of the subject disclosure include a machine-readablemedium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by aprocessing system including a processor, facilitate performance ofoperations, the operations comprising: receiving a manifest for a pointcloud, wherein the point cloud is partitioned into a plurality of cells,and wherein the manifest provides a center and a number of points ofeach cell of the plurality of cells; determining an occlusion level fora cell of the plurality of cells with respect to a predicted viewport;and reducing a point density for the cell based on the occlusion level,thereby determining a reduced point density; and requesting delivery ofpoints in the cell, based on the reduced point density.

One or more aspects of the subject disclosure include a method forstreaming a point cloud, comprising: receiving, by a processing systemincluding a processor, a description of a partitioning of a point cloud,wherein the description provides a center of each partition and a numberof points in each partition; identifying, by the processing system, afirst partition comprising a first number of points that are occluded bypoints in other partitions with respect to a predicted viewpoint;identifying, by the processing system, a third number of the otherpartitions, and a second partition of the other partitions, wherein thesecond partition has a second number of points that is larger than anyother partition of the other partitions; calculating a percentagereduction of points in the first partition, wherein the percentage iscalculated using a heuristic algorithm with inputs comprising the thirdnumber of the other partitions and a ratio of the second number ofpoints in the second partition to the first number of points in thefirst partition; requesting, by the processing system, the percentagereduction of points in the first partition from a server; receiving, bythe processing system, points in the first partition from the server;and displaying, by the processing system, the points in the firstpartition that are received.

Referring now to FIG. 1 , a block diagram is shown illustrating anexample, non-limiting embodiment of a communications network 100 inaccordance with various aspects described herein. For example,communications network 100 can facilitate in whole or in partcommunications between a server and a mobile device for streaming avolumetric video, including a manifest file, and requests for reducedpoint densities of cells in a point cloud. In particular, acommunications network 125 is presented for providing broadband access110 to a plurality of data terminals 114 via access terminal 112,wireless access 120 to a plurality of mobile devices 124 and vehicle 126via base station or access point 122, voice access 130 to a plurality oftelephony devices 134, via switching device 132 and/or media access 140to a plurality of audio/video display devices 144 via media terminal142. In addition, communication network 125 is coupled to one or morecontent sources 175 of audio, video, graphics, text and/or other media.While broadband access 110, wireless access 120, voice access 130 andmedia access 140 are shown separately, one or more of these forms ofaccess can be combined to provide multiple access services to a singleclient device (e.g., mobile devices 124 can receive media content viamedia terminal 142, data terminal 114 can be provided voice access viaswitching device 132, and so on).

The communications network 125 includes a plurality of network elements(NE) 150, 152, 154, 156, etc. for facilitating the broadband access 110,wireless access 120, voice access 130, media access 140 and/or thedistribution of content from content sources 175. The communicationsnetwork 125 can include a circuit switched or packet switched network, avoice over Internet protocol (VoIP) network, Internet protocol (IP)network, a cable network, a passive or active optical network, a 4G, 5G,or higher generation wireless access network, WIMAX network,UltraWideband network, personal area network or other wireless accessnetwork, a broadcast satellite network and/or another communicationsnetwork.

In various embodiments, the access terminal 112 can include a digitalsubscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM), cable modem terminationsystem (CMTS), optical line terminal (OLT) and/or other access terminal.The data terminals 114 can include personal computers, laptop computers,netbook computers, tablets or other computing devices along with digitalsubscriber line (DSL) modems, data over coax service interfacespecification (DOCSIS) modems or other cable modems, a wireless modemsuch as a 4G, 5G, or higher generation modem, an optical modem and/orother access devices.

In various embodiments, the base station or access point 122 can includea 4G, 5G, or higher generation base station, an access point thatoperates via an 802.11 standard such as 802.11n, 802.11ac or otherwireless access terminal. The mobile devices 124 can include mobilephones, e-readers, tablets, phablets, wireless modems, and/or othermobile computing devices.

In various embodiments, the switching device 132 can include a privatebranch exchange or central office switch, a media services gateway, VoIPgateway or other gateway device and/or other switching device. Thetelephony devices 134 can include traditional telephones (with orwithout a terminal adapter), VoIP telephones and/or other telephonydevices.

In various embodiments, the media terminal 142 can include a cablehead-end or other TV head-end, a satellite receiver, gateway or othermedia terminal 142. The display devices 144 can include televisions withor without a set top box, personal computers and/or other displaydevices.

In various embodiments, the content sources 175 include broadcasttelevision and radio sources, video on demand platforms and streamingvideo and audio services platforms, one or more content data networks,data servers, web servers and other content servers, and/or othersources of media.

In various embodiments, the communications network 125 can includewired, optical and/or wireless links and the network elements 150, 152,154, 156, etc. can include service switching points, signal transferpoints, service control points, network gateways, media distributionhubs, servers, firewalls, routers, edge devices, switches and othernetwork nodes for routing and controlling communications traffic overwired, optical and wireless links as part of the Internet and otherpublic networks as well as one or more private networks, for managingsubscriber access, for billing and network management and for supportingother network functions.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating an example, a non-limitingembodiment of a system 200 functioning within the communication networkof FIG. 1 in accordance with various aspects described herein. Referringto FIG. 2A, in one or more embodiments, a system 200 can include a videocontent server 201 that provides video content over communicationnetwork 203 to a media device 205 communicatively coupled to a virtualreality headset 208. In some embodiments, the virtual reality headset208 can be an augmented reality headset. In an embodiment, the videocontent can be volumetric video content that can be viewed or presentedusing the virtual reality headset 208. In further embodiments, a mediadevice 205, such as a smartphone, can be coupled to the virtual realityheadset 208 to download and view the volumetric video content. In otherembodiments, the video content server can provide the video content 201over the communication network to a media device 205 communicativelycoupled to a display to present the video content. In other embodiments,a heuristic algorithm executing on the media device 205 can evaluate thevolumetric video content to request a reduced portion of the videocontent that is provided by the video content server 201 over thecommunication network. In additional embodiments, the video server canbe a media content server, a social media server, a gaming server, webserver, or any other server that provides video content. In furtherembodiments, the media device can be a mobile device (e.g., smartphone,tablet computer, laptop computer, etc.) or any other media device (e.g.,television, desktop computer, set top box, media processor, etc.).

In one or more embodiments, volumetric video content viewed on thedisplay of the virtual reality headset 208 can be presented from aviewpoint 206 within the volumetric video. A user wearing the virtualreality headset 208 can view different perspectives of the volumetricvideo content by moving the user's head in a particular direction. Forexample, if a user pitches her head upward, then the video content isadjusted to provide the perspective toward the top of the video. Theuser can also rotate her head to the left or right (yaw) or roll herhead. But she can also move the location up or down, right or left,forward or back, which enables watching a scene in the volumetric videofrom different virtual locations.

Unlike 360-degree videos, which are created from the inside-out,volumetric videos are created outside-in. Volumetric videos are capturedusing multiple RGB-D cameras with depth sensors, and various LIDARscanners, which acquire 3D data from different viewpoints. The acquireddata is then merged to obtain the entire scene. Data representing thevolumetric video can be received by a video player that is integratedwith or communicatively coupled with the virtual reality headset or anydisplay communicatively and/or physically coupled to the media device205. However, high quality volumetric video consumes a high amount ofbandwidth over the communication network 203. In some embodiments, thecommunication network 203 may be a cellular network or a Wi-Fi networkwith limited available bandwidth to provide video content, particularlyvolumetric video content. In most embodiments, the communication network203 may lack the bandwidth to transmit volumetric videos encoded in apoint cloud representation.

A key challenge of volumetric video streaming is to determine thevisible points for a given viewpoint, so that only those visible pointsare sent to the media device 205 for a given viewpoint 206. There hasbeen attempts to address this concern. See Katz et al., DirectVisibility of Point Sets. ACM Transactions on Graphics, 26(3): ArticleNo. 24 (2007), which is incorporated by reference herein. In anembodiment, points that are on the convex hull of a transformed pointcloud are extracted as the visible points, and the hidden points arethus removed. This method can be applied to point clouds with variousdimensions, densities, and for viewpoints either internal or external tothe point cloud. However, determining the visibility of point clouds inthis manner is usually computationally intensive, given the density ofpoint clouds for high quality volumetric videos, as discussed below.

Mehra et al. improves the hidden point removal (HPR) operator for noisypoint clouds that may contain concavities and non-uniformly spacedsamples. See Mehra et al., Visibility of Noisy Point Cloud Data inComputers and Graphics, 34(3): pp. 219-230 (2010), which is incorporatedby reference herein. This HPR operator was investigated to understandits performance, especially the compute latency. The convex hullconstruction from the Computational Geometry Algorithms Library (CGAL),which is based on the quickhull algorithm, was implemented. The computelatency is dominated by the construction of the convex hull. It takeslonger than 4 seconds for a point cloud with 91K points and longer than11 seconds for a point cloud with 225K points (on a commercial servermachine with Intel Xeon CPU E3-1270 v5 @ 3.60 GHz). This highcomputational latency makes the above intuitive solution infeasible.Ideally, for a volumetric video with 30 frames per second (FPS), the HPRoperator should finish within 33 ms. Another problem of this solution isthat it requires the position of each point and thus can run on only theserver side, which leads to the scalability issues when serving manyclients. Hence, the mobile device 205 employs a heuristic algorithm toremove points that are obscured by others in the point cloud.

FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating an example, non-limiting embodiment ofidentifying visible points in a point cloud 210 by an algorithmimplemented on a mobile device 205 functioning within the communicationnetwork of FIG. 1 in accordance with various aspects described herein.First, the point cloud 210 in each frame of a volumetric video ispartitioned into smaller 3D cells (each being individually encoded andcan be separately fetched). Next, those cells that may be occluded byothers given a predicted viewpoint 212 (as shown in FIG. 2B—the threegreen cells are occluded by the nine blue cells) are identified and thepoint density for those cells is reduced. By reducing the point densityof occluded cells, the bandwidth footprint when streaming volumetricvideos over wireless networks can be significantly reduced withoutaffecting the quality of user experience.

In an embodiment, an algorithm is executed on the mobile device 205 thatenumerates over all cells overlapping with the predicted viewport. Foreach cell c, the algorithm applies robust heuristics to calculate anocclusion level for the cell, denoted as O(c). The larger O(c) is, themore likely that c will be occluded by other cells. Since the algorithmdoes not yet know the coordinates of individual points within a cell,because the point cloud has not been transmitted over the network to themobile device 205, it is inherently impossible for the algorithm toderive the precise occlusion relationship. However, the algorithm knowsthe number of points that each cell contains, through a manifest filedelivered from the server before streaming the point cloud. Hence, aheuristic-driven likelihood of occlusion is computed by the algorithm,which can already bring non-trivial data savings while maintainingalmost lossless visual quality. After determining the occlusion level,to reduce data usage, the mobile device will request a reduced pointdensity level when the cell may be occluded by others, instead of usingthe same point density level for all cells. In an embodiment, thealgorithm could request five different point density levels thatrandomly sample points in the cell, for example 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and100% of the total number of points in each cell.

To calculate O(c) for a given cell c, first, draw a ray from thepredicted viewpoint to the center of c. Intuitively, all cells thatocclude c must (1) intersect with the ray, and (2) be closer to theviewpoint than c. Next, identify such cells that meet these twocriteria. For performance considerations, instead of searching for allcells, only test c's surrounding cells whose distance to c is up to L.In an embodiment, the Chebyshev distance defined as:L _(∞)(c ¹ ,c ²)=max(|c _(x) ¹ −c _(x) ²|,|_(y) ¹ −c _(y) ² |,|c _(z) ¹−c _(z) ²|)is used to determine the distance between the viewpoint and the cell.

For example, when L=1, only c's 26 surrounding neighbors are considered.In an embodiment, the algorithm employs a Ray-Box Intersection algorithmfor a fast intersection test. Through the above process, the algorithmcalculates a total number of closer surrounding cells, i.e., those cellsthat meet both criteria, denoted as S(c).

In addition, among all such cells in S(c), let the cell with the largestnumber of points be c′, i.e., a most-dense closer surrounding cell ofthe closer surrounding cells. The algorithm also calculates a ratio ofpoints between c′ and c, denoted as R(c). For example, if c′ and c have150 and 100 points respectively, then R(c)=1.5. As noted above, thealgorithm knows the number of points contained by each cell through themanifest file delivered from the server.

S(c) and R(c) are good indicators for potential occlusion. O(c) ispositively correlated with S(c) (the number of cells that may occlude c)and R(c) (the most-dense closer surrounding cell of the closersurrounding cells, which is the cell having the highest point densityratio among all cells that may occlude c). In an embodiment, a numericalvalue indicating occlusion could be the following product:p=R(c)β^(1−S(c)), where β is between 0 and 1, and preferably 0.8.

The occlusion level O(c) can be an empirical mapping of the product pover a range of parameters α₀, α₁, α₂:

${O(c)} = \left\{ \begin{matrix}{0,{p < {\alpha 0}}} \\{1,{{\alpha 0} \leq p < {\alpha 1}}} \\{2,{{\alpha 1} \leq p < {\alpha 2}}} \\{3,{{\alpha 2} \leq p}}\end{matrix} \right.$where the range parameters {α₀, α₁, α₂} are preferably {0.6, 1.0, 3.0},based on an examination of many viewports from a dataset. In anembodiment, α₀ can be as small as zero, and α₂ can be as large as 20.Decreasing (increasing) these values makes the proposed solution moreconservative (aggressive).

The last step is to use O(c) to adjust the point density level of c. Letc's initial point density level D(c), which could be chosen by any videobitrate adaptation algorithms. The algorithm reduces the point densitylevel of cell c to max{D(c)−O(c), 0} to accommodate the occlusion level.

Overall, leveraging the limited information (the predicted viewpoint andthe cells' point densities), the algorithm applies domain knowledge andheuristics to determine the occlusion level and uses the occlusion levelto reduce the point density for each cell. Compared to HPR, thealgorithm executes extremely fast (at sub-millisecond level) on mobiledevices.

FIG. 2C depicts an illustrative embodiment of a method in accordancewith various aspects described herein. As shown in FIG. 2C, method 230begins at step 231, where a mobile device streams a volumetric videocomprising point cloud data from a server across a network. Before videoplayback, the mobile device receives a manifest file from the server,which describes the point cloud data for each frame of the volumetricvideo. In an embodiment, the manifest file includes a partitioning ofthe point cloud data into cells that can be fetched individually fromthe server. The manifest file provides a location of the center of eachcell, and a number of points that are in each cell.

Next, in step 232, the mobile device selects a cell from the point cloudas the next cell for downloading. In an embodiment, the mobile devicecan request cells in any order from the server.

Then, in step 233, the mobile device determines the cells that surroundthe selected next cell. For example, if the cells are cube shaped, thereare 26 neighboring cells. Of these cells, the mobile device determineswhich of the neighboring cells are closer to a predicted viewpoint thanthe selected next cell. In addition, the mobile device also determineswhich of these closer neighboring cells are in front of the selectednext cell, thereby potentially occluding the view of the selected nextcell and computes a total number of these cells. In an embodiment, themobile device makes this determination by testing whether the closerneighboring cell intersects a ray cast between the predicted viewpointand the center of the selected next cell. In another embodiment, themobile device determines the total number all cells that are closer tothe predicted viewpoint and are in front of the selected next cell.

Next, in step 234, the mobile device determines which cell of the closercells in front of the selected next cell has the most points andcalculates a ratio of the number of points in this most-dense cell tothe selected next cell.

Next, in step 235, the mobile device determines the occlusion level ofthe selected next cell using the total number of closer cells that arein front of the selected next cell and the ratio of the number of pointsin the most-dense cell to the selected next cell. These two factorsprovide a level of the occlusion of the selected next cell. In anembodiment, these factors are inputs to a product set forth in theRay-Box Intersection algorithm above, which is compared to a range todetermine the occlusion level, as set forth above.

Next, in step 236, the mobile device requests a percentage of the pointsfor the selected next cell. For example, if the occlusion level is zero,then the mobile device will request 100% of the points in the cell.However, if the occlusion level is the highest, then the mobile devicewill request the smallest percentage of points in the cell. For example,in the Ray-Box Intersection algorithm embodiment set forth above, if theocclusion level is 3, then the mobile device may only request 40% of thepoints in the selected next cell. In an embodiment, the server randomlyselects the points that are streamed to the mobile device based on thepercentage of points for the cell that the mobile device requests.

Next in step 237, the mobile device determines whether it has requestedpoints from the server for all the cells in the point cloud. If not,then the process repeats at step 232. If so, then the process continuesat step 238.

In step 238, the mobile device displays the points in the point cloudthat are downloaded from the server. Notably, the mobile device performsa heuristic-driven occlusion algorithm instead of the server, whicheliminates scalability issues. By downloading fewer points in theoccluded cells, and all the points in cells that are not occluded, whichbrings non-trivial data savings while maintaining almost lossless visualquality.

While for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the respectiveprocesses are shown and described as a series of blocks in FIG. 2C, itis to be understood and appreciated that the claimed subject matter isnot limited by the order of the blocks, as some blocks may occur indifferent orders and/or concurrently with other blocks from what isdepicted and described herein. Moreover, not all illustrated blocks maybe required to implement the methods described herein.

Referring now to FIG. 3 , a block diagram 300 is shown illustrating anexample, non-limiting embodiment of a virtualized communication networkin accordance with various aspects described herein. A virtualizedcommunication network is presented that can be used to implement some orall the subsystems and functions of communication network 100, thesubsystems and functions of system 200, and method 230 presented inFIGS. 1, 2A, 2B, 2C and 3 . For example, virtualized communicationnetwork 300 can facilitate in whole or in part communications between aserver and a mobile device for streaming a volumetric video, including amanifest file, and requests for reduced point densities of cells in apoint cloud.

A cloud networking architecture is shown that leverages cloudtechnologies and supports rapid innovation and scalability via atransport layer 350, a virtualized network function cloud 325 and/or oneor more cloud computing environments 375. In various embodiments, thiscloud networking architecture is an open architecture that leveragesapplication programming interfaces (APIs); reduces complexity fromservices and operations; supports more nimble business models; andrapidly and seamlessly scales to meet evolving customer requirementsincluding traffic growth, diversity of traffic types, and diversity ofperformance and reliability expectations.

In contrast to traditional network elements—which are typicallyintegrated to perform a single function, the virtualized communicationnetwork employs virtual network elements (VNEs) 330, 332, 334, etc. thatperform some or all of the functions of network elements 150, 152, 154,156, etc. For example, the network architecture can provide a substrateof networking capability, often called Network Function VirtualizationInfrastructure (NFVI) or simply infrastructure that is capable of beingdirected with software and Software Defined Networking (SDN) protocolsto perform a broad variety of network functions and services. Thisinfrastructure can include several types of substrates. The most typicaltype of substrate being servers that support Network FunctionVirtualization (NFV), followed by packet forwarding capabilities basedon generic computing resources, with specialized network technologiesbrought to bear when general-purpose processors or general-purposeintegrated circuit devices offered by merchants (referred to herein asmerchant silicon) are not appropriate. In this case, communicationservices can be implemented as cloud-centric workloads.

As an example, a traditional network element 150 (shown in FIG. 1 ),such as an edge router can be implemented via a VNE 330 composed of NFVsoftware modules, merchant silicon, and associated controllers. Thesoftware can be written so that increasing workload consumes incrementalresources from a common resource pool, and moreover so that it iselastic: so, the resources are only consumed when needed. In a similarfashion, other network elements such as other routers, switches, edgecaches, and middle-boxes are instantiated from the common resource pool.Such sharing of infrastructure across a broad set of uses makes planningand growing infrastructure easier to manage.

In an embodiment, the transport layer 350 includes fiber, cable, wiredand/or wireless transport elements, network elements and interfaces toprovide broadband access 110, wireless access 120, voice access 130,media access 140 and/or access to content sources 175 for distributionof content to any or all of the access technologies. In some cases, anetwork element needs to be positioned at a specific place, and thisallows for less sharing of common infrastructure. Other times, thenetwork elements have specific physical layer adapters that cannot beabstracted or virtualized and might require special DSP code and analogfront ends (AFEs) that do not lend themselves to implementation as VNEs330, 332 or 334. These network elements can be included in transportlayer 350.

The virtualized network function cloud 325 interfaces with the transportlayer 350 to provide the VNEs 330, 332, 334, etc. to provide specificNFVs. In particular, the virtualized network function cloud 325leverages cloud operations, applications, and architectures to supportnetworking workloads. The virtualized network elements 330, 332 and 334can employ network function software that provides either a one-for-onemapping of traditional network element function or alternately somecombination of network functions designed for cloud computing. Forexample, VNEs 330, 332 and 334 can include route reflectors, domain namesystem (DNS) servers, and dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP)servers, system architecture evolution (SAE) and/or mobility managemententity (MME) gateways, broadband network gateways, IP edge routers forIP-VPN, Ethernet and other services, load balancers, distributers andother network elements. Because these elements do not typically need toforward substantial amounts of traffic, their workload can bedistributed across several servers—each of which adds a portion of thecapability, and which creates an overall elastic function with higheravailability than its former monolithic version. These virtual networkelements 330, 332, 334, etc. can be instantiated and managed using anorchestration approach like those used in cloud compute services.

The cloud computing environments 375 can interface with the virtualizednetwork function cloud 325 via APIs that expose functional capabilitiesof the VNEs 330, 332, 334, etc. to provide the flexible and expandedcapabilities to the virtualized network function cloud 325. Networkworkloads may have applications distributed across the virtualizednetwork function cloud 325 and cloud computing environment 375 and inthe commercial cloud or might simply orchestrate workloads supportedentirely in NFV infrastructure from these third-party locations.

Turning now to FIG. 4 , there is illustrated a block diagram of acomputing environment in accordance with various aspects describedherein. In order to provide additional context for various embodimentsof the embodiments described herein, FIG. 4 and the following discussionare intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitablecomputing environment 400 in which the various embodiments of thesubject disclosure can be implemented. Computing environment 400 can beused in the implementation of network elements 150, 152, 154, 156,access terminal 112, base station or access point 122, switching device132, media terminal 142, and/or VNEs 330, 332, 334, etc. Each of thesedevices can be implemented via computer-executable instructions that canrun on one or more computers, and/or in combination with other programmodules and/or as a combination of hardware and software. For example,computing environment 400 can facilitate in whole or in partcommunications between a server and a mobile device for streaming avolumetric video, including a manifest file, and requests for reducedpoint densities of cells in a point cloud, and executing theheuristic-driven algorithm for the mobile device.

Generally, program modules comprise routines, programs, components, datastructures, etc., that perform tasks or implement abstract data types.Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the methods canbe practiced with other computer system configurations, comprisingsingle-processor or multiprocessor computer systems, minicomputers,mainframe computers, as well as personal computers, hand-held computingdevices, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, andthe like, each of which can be operatively coupled to one or moreassociated devices.

As used herein, a processing circuit includes one or more processors aswell as other application specific circuits such as an applicationspecific integrated circuit, digital logic circuit, state machine,programmable gate array or other circuit that processes input signals ordata and that produces output signals or data in response thereto. Itshould be noted that while any functions and features described hereinin association with the operation of a processor could likewise beperformed by a processing circuit.

The illustrated embodiments of the embodiments herein can be alsopracticed in distributed computing environments where certain tasks areperformed by remote processing devices that are linked through acommunications network. In a distributed computing environment, programmodules can be in both local and remote memory storage devices.

Computing devices typically comprise a variety of media, which cancomprise computer-readable storage media and/or communications media,which two terms are used herein differently from one another as follows.Computer-readable storage media can be any available storage media thatcan be accessed by the computer and comprises both volatile andnonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example,and not limitation, computer-readable storage media can be implementedin connection with any method or technology for storage of informationsuch as computer-readable instructions, program modules, structured dataor unstructured data.

Computer-readable storage media can comprise, but are not limited to,random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), electricallyerasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or othermemory technology, compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM), digitalversatile disk (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devicesor other tangible and/or non-transitory media which can be used to storedesired information. In this regard, the terms “tangible” or“non-transitory” herein as applied to storage, memory orcomputer-readable media, are to be understood to exclude onlypropagating transitory signals per se as modifiers and do not relinquishrights to all standard storage, memory or computer-readable media thatare not only propagating transitory signals per se.

Computer-readable storage media can be accessed by one or more local orremote computing devices, e.g., via access requests, queries or otherdata retrieval protocols, for a variety of operations with respect tothe information stored by the medium.

Communications media typically embody computer-readable instructions,data structures, program modules or other structured or unstructureddata in a data signal such as a modulated data signal, e.g., a carrierwave or other transport mechanism, and comprises any informationdelivery or transport media. The term “modulated data signal” or signalsrefers to a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set orchanged in such a manner as to encode information in one or moresignals. By way of example, and not limitation, communication mediacomprise wired media, such as a wired network or direct-wiredconnection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and otherwireless media.

With reference again to FIG. 4 , the example environment can comprise acomputer 402, the computer 402 comprising a processing unit 404, asystem memory 406 and a system bus 408. The system bus 408 couplessystem components including, but not limited to, the system memory 406to the processing unit 404. The processing unit 404 can be any ofvarious commercially available processors. Dual microprocessors andother multiprocessor architectures can also be employed as theprocessing unit 404.

The system bus 408 can be any of several types of bus structure that canfurther interconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memorycontroller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety ofcommercially available bus architectures. The system memory 406comprises ROM 410 and RAM 412. A basic input/output system (BIOS) can bestored in a non-volatile memory such as ROM, erasable programmable readonly memory (EPROM), EEPROM, which BIOS contains the basic routines thathelp to transfer information between elements within the computer 402,such as during startup. The RAM 412 can also comprise a high-speed RAMsuch as static RAM for caching data.

The computer 402 further comprises an internal hard disk drive (HDD) 414(e.g., EIDE, SATA), which internal HDD 414 can also be configured forexternal use in a suitable chassis (not shown), a magnetic floppy diskdrive (FDD) 416, (e.g., to read from or write to a removable diskette418) and an optical disk drive 420, (e.g., reading a CD-ROM disk 422 or,to read from or write to other high capacity optical media such as theDVD). The HDD 414, magnetic FDD 416 and optical disk drive 420 can beconnected to the system bus 408 by a hard disk drive interface 424, amagnetic disk drive interface 426 and an optical drive interface 428,respectively. The hard disk drive interface 424 for external driveimplementations comprises at least one or both of Universal Serial Bus(USB) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1394interface technologies. Other external drive connection technologies arewithin contemplation of the embodiments described herein.

The drives and their associated computer-readable storage media providenonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executableinstructions, and so forth. For the computer 402, the drives and storagemedia accommodate the storage of any data in a suitable digital format.Although the description of computer-readable storage media above refersto a hard disk drive (HDD), a removable magnetic diskette, and aremovable optical media such as a CD or DVD, it should be appreciated bythose skilled in the art that other types of storage media which arereadable by a computer, such as zip drives, magnetic cassettes, flashmemory cards, cartridges, and the like, can also be used in the exampleoperating environment, and further, that any such storage media cancontain computer-executable instructions for performing the methodsdescribed herein.

Several program modules can be stored in the drives and RAM 412,comprising an operating system 430, one or more application programs432, other program modules 434 and program data 436. All or portions ofthe operating system, applications, modules, and/or data can also becached in the RAM 412. The systems and methods described herein can beimplemented utilizing various commercially available operating systemsor combinations of operating systems.

A user can enter commands and information into the computer 402 throughone or more wired/wireless input devices, e.g., a keyboard 438 and apointing device, such as a mouse 440. Other input devices (not shown)can comprise a microphone, an infrared (IR) remote control, a joystick,a game pad, a stylus pen, touch screen or the like. These and otherinput devices are often connected to the processing unit 404 through aninput device interface 442 that can be coupled to the system bus 408,but can be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, anIEEE 1394 serial port, a game port, a universal serial bus (USB) port,an IR interface, etc.

A monitor 444 or other type of display device can be also connected tothe system bus 408 via an interface, such as a video adapter 446. Itwill also be appreciated that in alternative embodiments, a monitor 444can also be any display device (e.g., another computer having a display,a smart phone, a tablet computer, etc.) for receiving displayinformation associated with computer 402 via any communication means,including via the Internet and cloud-based networks. In addition to themonitor 444, a computer typically comprises other peripheral outputdevices (not shown), such as speakers, printers, etc.

The computer 402 can operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections via wired and/or wireless communications to one or moreremote computers, such as a remote computer(s) 448. The remotecomputer(s) 448 can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, apersonal computer, portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainmentappliance, a peer device or other common network node, and typicallycomprises many or all of the elements described relative to the computer402, although, for purposes of brevity, only a remote memory/storagedevice 450 is illustrated. The logical connections depicted comprisewired/wireless connectivity to a local area network (LAN) 452 and/orlarger networks, e.g., a wide area network (WAN) 454. Such LAN and WANnetworking environments are commonplace in offices and companies, andfacilitate enterprise-wide computer networks, such as intranets, all ofwhich can connect to a global communications network, e.g., theInternet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 402 can beconnected to the LAN 452 through a wired and/or wireless communicationnetwork interface or adapter 456. The adapter 456 can facilitate wiredor wireless communication to the LAN 452, which can also comprise awireless AP disposed thereon for communicating with the adapter 456.

When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 402 can comprisea modem 458 or can be connected to a communications server on the WAN454 or has other means for establishing communications over the WAN 454,such as by way of the Internet. The modem 458, which can be internal orexternal and a wired or wireless device, can be connected to the systembus 408 via the input device interface 442. In a networked environment,program modules depicted relative to the computer 402 or portionsthereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device 450. It willbe appreciated that the network connections shown are example and othermeans of establishing a communications link between the computers can beused.

The computer 402 can be operable to communicate with any wirelessdevices or entities operatively disposed in wireless communication,e.g., a printer, scanner, desktop and/or portable computer, portabledata assistant, communications satellite, any piece of equipment orlocation associated with a wirelessly detectable tag (e.g., a kiosk,news stand, restroom), and telephone. This can comprise WirelessFidelity (Wi-Fi) and BLUETOOTH® wireless technologies. Thus, thecommunication can be a predefined structure as with a conventionalnetwork or simply an ad hoc communication between at least two devices.

Wi-Fi can allow connection to the Internet from a couch at home, a bedin a hotel room or a conference room at work, without wires. Wi-Fi is awireless technology like that used in a cell phone that enables suchdevices, e.g., computers, to send and receive data indoors and out;anywhere within the range of a base station. Wi-Fi networks use radiotechnologies called IEEE 802.11 (a, b, g, n, ac, ag, etc.) to providesecure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A Wi-Fi network can beused to connect computers to each other, to the Internet, and to wirednetworks (which can use IEEE 802.3 or Ethernet). Wi-Fi networks operatein the unlicensed 2.4 and 5 GHz radio bands for example or with productsthat contain both bands (dual band), so the networks can providereal-world performance like the basic 10BaseT wired Ethernet networksused in many offices.

Turning now to FIG. 5 , an embodiment 500 of a mobile network platform510 is shown that is an example of network elements 150, 152, 154, 156,and/or VNEs 330, 332, 334, etc. For example, platform 510 can facilitatein whole or in part a mobile device for streaming a volumetric video,processing a manifest file, submitting requests for reduced pointdensities of cells in a point cloud, and displaying a volumetric video.In one or more embodiments, the mobile network platform 510 can generateand receive signals transmitted and received by base stations or accesspoints such as base station or access point 122. Generally, mobilenetwork platform 510 can comprise components, e.g., nodes, gateways,interfaces, servers, or disparate platforms, which facilitate bothpacket-switched (PS) (e.g., internet protocol (IP), frame relay,asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)) and circuit-switched (CS) traffic(e.g., voice and data), as well as control generation for networkedwireless telecommunication. As a non-limiting example, mobile networkplatform 510 can be included in telecommunications carrier networks andcan be considered carrier-side components as discussed elsewhere herein.Mobile network platform 510 comprises CS gateway node(s) 512 which caninterface CS traffic received from legacy networks like telephonynetwork(s) 540 (e.g., public switched telephone network (PSTN), orpublic land mobile network (PLMN)) or a signaling system #7 (SS7)network 560. CS gateway node(s) 512 can authorize and authenticatetraffic (e.g., voice) arising from such networks. Additionally, CSgateway node(s) 512 can access mobility, or roaming, data generatedthrough SS7 network 560; for instance, mobility data stored in a visitedlocation register (VLR), which can reside in memory 530. Moreover, CSgateway node(s) 512 interfaces CS-based traffic and signaling and PSgateway node(s) 518. As an example, in a 3GPP UMTS network, CS gatewaynode(s) 512 can be realized at least in part in gateway GPRS supportnode(s) (GGSN). It should be appreciated that functionality and specificoperation of CS gateway node(s) 512, PS gateway node(s) 518, and servingnode(s) 516, is provided and dictated by radio technology(ies) utilizedby mobile network platform 510 for telecommunication over a radio accessnetwork 520 with other devices, such as a radiotelephone 575.

In addition to receiving and processing CS-switched traffic andsignaling, PS gateway node(s) 518 can authorize and authenticatePS-based data sessions with served mobile devices. Data sessions cancomprise traffic, or content(s), exchanged with networks external to themobile network platform 510, like wide area network(s) (WANs) 550,enterprise network(s) 570, and service network(s) 580, which can beembodied in local area network(s) (LANs), can also be interfaced withmobile network platform 510 through PS gateway node(s) 518. It is to benoted that WANs 550 and enterprise network(s) 570 can embody, at leastin part, a service network(s) like IP multimedia subsystem (IMS). Basedon radio technology layer(s) available in technology resource(s) orradio access network 520, PS gateway node(s) 518 can generate packetdata protocol contexts when a data session is established; other datastructures that facilitate routing of packetized data also can begenerated. To that end, in an aspect, PS gateway node(s) 518 cancomprise a tunnel interface (e.g., tunnel termination gateway (TTG) in3GPP UMTS network(s) (not shown)) which can facilitate packetizedcommunication with disparate wireless network(s), such as Wi-Finetworks.

In embodiment 500, mobile network platform 510 also comprises servingnode(s) 516 that, based upon available radio technology layer(s) withintechnology resource(s) in the radio access network 520, convey thevarious packetized flows of data streams received through PS gatewaynode(s) 518. It is to be noted that for technology resource(s) that relyprimarily on CS communication, server node(s) can deliver trafficwithout reliance on PS gateway node(s) 518; for example, server node(s)can embody at least in part a mobile switching center. As an example, ina 3GPP UMTS network, serving node(s) 516 can be embodied in serving GPRSsupport node(s) (SGSN).

For radio technologies that exploit packetized communication, server(s)514 in mobile network platform 510 can execute numerous applicationsthat can generate multiple disparate packetized data streams or flows,and manage (e.g., schedule, queue, format . . . ) such flows. Suchapplication(s) can comprise add-on features to standard services (forexample, provisioning, billing, customer support . . . ) provided bymobile network platform 510. Data streams (e.g., content(s) that arepart of a voice call or data session) can be conveyed to PS gatewaynode(s) 518 for authorization/authentication and initiation of a datasession, and to serving node(s) 516 for communication thereafter. Inaddition to application server, server(s) 514 can comprise utilityserver(s), a utility server can comprise a provisioning server, anoperations and maintenance server, a security server that can implementat least in part a certificate authority and firewalls as well as othersecurity mechanisms, and the like. In an aspect, security server(s)secure communication served through mobile network platform 510 toensure network's operation and data integrity in addition toauthorization and authentication procedures that CS gateway node(s) 512and PS gateway node(s) 518 can enact. Moreover, provisioning server(s)can provision services from external network(s) like networks operatedby a disparate service provider; for instance, WAN 550 or GlobalPositioning System (GPS) network(s) (not shown). Provisioning server(s)can also provision coverage through networks associated to mobilenetwork platform 510 (e.g., deployed and operated by the same serviceprovider), such as the distributed antennas networks shown in FIG. 1(s)that enhance wireless service coverage by providing more networkcoverage.

It is to be noted that server(s) 514 can comprise one or more processorsconfigured to confer at least in part the functionality of mobilenetwork platform 510. To that end, the one or more processors canexecute code instructions stored in memory 530, for example. It shouldbe appreciated that server(s) 514 can comprise a content manager, whichoperates in substantially the same manner as described hereinbefore.

In example embodiment 500, memory 530 can store information related tooperation of mobile network platform 510. Other operational informationcan comprise provisioning information of mobile devices served throughmobile network platform 510, subscriber databases; applicationintelligence, pricing schemes, e.g., promotional rates, flat-rateprograms, couponing campaigns; technical specification(s) consistentwith telecommunication protocols for operation of disparate radio, orwireless, technology layers; and so forth. Memory 530 can also storeinformation from at least one of telephony network(s) 540, WAN 550, SS7network 560, or enterprise network(s) 570. In an aspect, memory 530 canbe, for example, accessed as part of a data store component or as aremotely connected memory store.

In order to provide a context for the various aspects of the disclosedsubject matter, FIG. 5 , and the following discussion, are intended toprovide a brief, general description of a suitable environment in whichthe various aspects of the disclosed subject matter can be implemented.While the subject matter has been described above in the general contextof computer-executable instructions of a computer program that runs on acomputer and/or computers, those skilled in the art will recognize thatthe disclosed subject matter also can be implemented in combination withother program modules. Generally, program modules comprise routines,programs, components, data structures, etc. that perform tasks and/orimplement abstract data types.

Turning now to FIG. 6 , an illustrative embodiment of a communicationdevice 600 is shown. The communication device 600 can serve as anillustrative embodiment of devices such as data terminals 114, mobiledevices 124, vehicle 126, display devices 144 or other client devicesfor communication via either communications network 125. For example,computing device 600 can facilitate in whole or in part a server or amobile device for streaming a volumetric video, processing a manifestfile, submitting requests for reduced point densities of cells in apoint cloud, and displaying a volumetric video.

The communication device 600 can comprise a wireline and/or wirelesstransceiver 602 (herein transceiver 602), a user interface (UI) 604, apower supply 614, a location receiver 616, a motion sensor 618, anorientation sensor 620, and a controller 606 for managing operationsthereof. The transceiver 602 can support short-range or long-rangewireless access technologies such as Bluetooth®, ZigBee®, Wi-Fi, DECT,or cellular communication technologies, just to mention a few(Bluetooth® and ZigBee® are trademarks registered by the Bluetooth®Special Interest Group and the ZigBee® Alliance, respectively). Cellulartechnologies can include, for example, CDMA-1X, UMTS/HSDPA, GSM/GPRS,TDMA/EDGE, EV/DO, WiMAX, SDR, LTE, as well as other next generationwireless communication technologies as they arise. The transceiver 602can also be adapted to support circuit-switched wireline accesstechnologies (such as PSTN), packet-switched wireline accesstechnologies (such as TCP/IP, VoIP, etc.), and combinations thereof.

The UI 604 can include a depressible or touch-sensitive keypad 608 witha navigation mechanism such as a roller ball, a joystick, a mouse, or anavigation disk for manipulating operations of the communication device600. The keypad 608 can be an integral part of a housing assembly of thecommunication device 600 or an independent device operably coupledthereto by a tethered wireline interface (such as a USB cable) or awireless interface supporting for example Bluetooth®. The keypad 608 canrepresent a numeric keypad commonly used by phones, and/or a QWERTYkeypad with alphanumeric keys. The UI 604 can further include a display610 such as monochrome or color LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), OLED(Organic Light Emitting Diode) or other suitable display technology forconveying images to an end user of the communication device 600. In anembodiment where the display 610 is touch-sensitive, a portion or all ofthe keypad 608 can be presented by way of the display 610 withnavigation features.

The display 610 can use touch screen technology to also serve as a userinterface for detecting user input. As a touch screen display, thecommunication device 600 can be adapted to present a user interfacehaving graphical user interface (GUI) elements that can be selected by auser with a touch of a finger. The display 610 can be equipped withcapacitive, resistive or other forms of sensing technology to detect howmuch surface area of a user's finger has been placed on a portion of thetouch screen display. This sensing information can be used to controlthe manipulation of the GUI elements or other functions of the userinterface. The display 610 can be an integral part of the housingassembly of the communication device 600 or an independent devicecommunicatively coupled thereto by a tethered wireline interface (suchas a cable) or a wireless interface.

The UI 604 can also include an audio system 612 that utilizes audiotechnology for conveying low volume audio (such as audio heard inproximity of a human ear) and high-volume audio (such as speakerphonefor hands free operation). The audio system 612 can further include amicrophone for receiving audible signals of an end user. The audiosystem 612 can also be used for voice recognition applications. The UI604 can further include an image sensor 613 such as a charged coupleddevice (CCD) camera for capturing still or moving images.

The power supply 614 can utilize common power management technologiessuch as replaceable and rechargeable batteries, supply regulationtechnologies, and/or charging system technologies for supplying energyto the components of the communication device 600 to facilitatelong-range or short-range portable communications. Alternatively, or incombination, the charging system can utilize external power sources suchas DC power supplied over a physical interface such as a USB port orother suitable tethering technologies.

The location receiver 616 can utilize location technology such as aglobal positioning system (GPS) receiver capable of assisted GPS foridentifying a location of the communication device 600 based on signalsgenerated by a constellation of GPS satellites, which can be used forfacilitating location services such as navigation. The motion sensor 618can utilize motion sensing technology such as an accelerometer, agyroscope, or other suitable motion sensing technology to detect motionof the communication device 600 in three-dimensional space. Theorientation sensor 620 can utilize orientation sensing technology suchas a magnetometer to detect the orientation of the communication device600 (north, south, west, and east, as well as combined orientations indegrees, minutes, or other suitable orientation metrics).

The communication device 600 can use the transceiver 602 to alsodetermine a proximity to a cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, or otherwireless access points by sensing techniques such as utilizing areceived signal strength indicator (RSSI) and/or signal time of arrival(TOA) or time of flight (TOF) measurements. The controller 606 canutilize computing technologies such as a microprocessor, a digitalsignal processor (DSP), programmable gate arrays, application specificintegrated circuits, and/or a video processor with associated storagememory such as Flash, ROM, RAM, SRAM, DRAM or other storage technologiesfor executing computer instructions, controlling, and processing datasupplied by the aforementioned components of the communication device600.

Other components not shown in FIG. 6 can be used in one or moreembodiments of the subject disclosure. For instance, the communicationdevice 600 can include a slot for adding or removing an identity modulesuch as a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card or Universal IntegratedCircuit Card (UICC). SIM or UICC cards can be used for identifyingsubscriber services, executing programs, storing subscriber data, and soon.

The terms “first,” “second,” “third,” and so forth, as used in theclaims, unless otherwise clear by context, is for clarity only and doesnot otherwise indicate or imply any order in time. For instance, “afirst determination,” “a second determination,” and “a thirddetermination,” does not indicate or imply that the first determinationis to be made before the second determination, or vice versa, etc.

In the subject specification, terms such as “store,” “storage,” “datastore,” data storage,” “database,” and substantially any otherinformation storage component relevant to operation and functionality ofa component, refer to “memory components,” or entities embodied in a“memory” or components comprising the memory. It will be appreciatedthat the memory components described herein can be either volatilememory or nonvolatile memory, or can comprise both volatile andnonvolatile memory, by way of illustration, and not limitation, volatilememory, non-volatile memory, disk storage, and memory storage. Further,nonvolatile memory can be included in read only memory (ROM),programmable ROM (PROM), electrically programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable ROM (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory cancomprise random access memory (RAM), which acts as external cachememory. By way of illustration and not limitation, RAM is available inmany forms such as synchronous RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM),synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhancedSDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct Rambus RAM (DRRAM).Additionally, the disclosed memory components of systems or methodsherein are intended to comprise, without being limited to comprising,these and any other suitable types of memory.

Moreover, it will be noted that the disclosed subject matter can bepracticed with other computer system configurations, comprisingsingle-processor or multiprocessor computer systems, mini-computingdevices, mainframe computers, as well as personal computers, hand-heldcomputing devices (e.g., PDA, phone, smartphone, watch, tabletcomputers, netbook computers, etc.), microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer or industrial electronics, and the like. Theillustrated aspects can also be practiced in distributed computingenvironments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices thatare linked through a communications network; however, some if not allaspects of the subject disclosure can be practiced on stand-alonecomputers. In a distributed computing environment, program modules canbe in both local and remote memory storage devices.

In one or more embodiments, information regarding use of services can begenerated including services being accessed, media consumption history,user preferences, and so forth. This information can be obtained byvarious methods including user input, detecting types of communications(e.g., video content vs. audio content), analysis of content streams,sampling, and so forth. The generating, obtaining and/or monitoring ofthis information can be responsive to an authorization provided by theuser. In one or more embodiments, an analysis of data can be subject toauthorization from user(s) associated with the data, such as an opt-in,an opt-out, acknowledgement requirements, notifications, selectiveauthorization based on types of data, and so forth.

Some of the embodiments described herein can also employ artificialintelligence (AI) to facilitate automating one or more featuresdescribed herein. The embodiments (e.g., in connection withautomatically identifying acquired cell sites that provide a maximumvalue/benefit after addition to an existing communication network) canemploy various AI-based schemes for conducting various embodimentsthereof. Moreover, the classifier can be employed to determine a rankingor priority of each cell site of the acquired network. A classifier is afunction that maps an input attribute vector, x=(x₁, x₂, x₃, x₄ . . .x_(n)), to a confidence that the input belongs to a class, that is,f(x)=confidence (class). Such classification can employ a probabilisticand/or statistical-based analysis (e.g., factoring into the analysisutilities and costs) to determine or infer an action that a user desiresto be automatically performed. A support vector machine (SVM) is anexample of a classifier that can be employed. The SVM operates byfinding a hypersurface in the space of possible inputs, which thehypersurface attempts to split the triggering criteria from thenon-triggering events. Intuitively, this makes the classificationcorrect for testing data that is near, but not identical to trainingdata. Other directed and undirected model classification approachescomprise, e.g., naïve Bayes, Bayesian networks, decision trees, neuralnetworks, fuzzy logic models, and probabilistic classification modelsproviding different patterns of independence can be employed.Classification as used herein also is inclusive of statisticalregression that is utilized to develop models of priority.

As will be readily appreciated, one or more of the embodiments canemploy classifiers that are explicitly trained (e.g., via a generictraining data) as well as implicitly trained (e.g., via observing UEbehavior, operator preferences, historical information, receivingextrinsic information). For example, SVMs can be configured via alearning or training phase within a classifier constructor and featureselection module. Thus, the classifier(s) can be used to automaticallylearn and perform a number of functions, including but not limited todetermining according to predetermined criteria which of the acquiredcell sites will benefit a maximum number of subscribers and/or which ofthe acquired cell sites will add minimum value to the existingcommunication network coverage, etc.

As used in some contexts in this application, in some embodiments, theterms “component,” “system” and the like are intended to refer to, orcomprise, a computer-related entity or an entity related to anoperational apparatus with one or more specific functionalities, whereinthe entity can be either hardware, a combination of hardware andsoftware, software, or software in execution. As an example, a componentmay be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, aprocessor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution,computer-executable instructions, a program, and/or a computer. By wayof illustration and not limitation, both an application running on aserver and the server can be a component. One or more components mayreside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component maybe localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or morecomputers. In addition, these components can execute from variouscomputer readable media having various data structures stored thereon.The components may communicate via local and/or remote processes such asin accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., datafrom one component interacting with another component in a local system,distributed system, and/or across a network such as the Internet withother systems via the signal). As another example, a component can be anapparatus with specific functionality provided by mechanical partsoperated by electric or electronic circuitry, which is operated by asoftware or firmware application executed by a processor, wherein theprocessor can be internal or external to the apparatus and executes atleast a part of the software or firmware application. Yet anotherexample, a component can be an apparatus that provides specificfunctionality through electronic components without mechanical parts,the electronic components can comprise a processor therein to executesoftware or firmware that confers at least in part the functionality ofthe electronic components. While various components have beenillustrated as separate components, it will be appreciated that multiplecomponents can be implemented as a single component, or a singlecomponent can be implemented as multiple components, without departingfrom example embodiments.

Further, the various embodiments can be implemented as a method,apparatus or article of manufacture using standard programming and/orengineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware or anycombination thereof to control a computer to implement the disclosedsubject matter. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein isintended to encompass a computer program accessible from anycomputer-readable device or computer-readable storage/communicationsmedia. For example, computer readable storage media can include, but arenot limited to, magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk,magnetic strips), optical disks (e.g., compact disk (CD), digitalversatile disk (DVD)), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g.,card, stick, key drive). Of course, those skilled in the art willrecognize many modifications can be made to this configuration withoutdeparting from the scope or spirit of the various embodiments.

In addition, the words “example” and “exemplary” are used herein to meanserving as an instance or illustration. Any embodiment or designdescribed herein as “example” or “exemplary” is not necessarily to beconstrued as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments ordesigns. Rather, use of the word example or exemplary is intended topresent concepts in a concrete fashion. As used in this application, theterm “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive“or.” That is, unless specified otherwise or clear from context, “Xemploys A or B” is intended to mean any of the natural inclusivepermutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both Aand B, then “X employs A or B” is satisfied under any of the foregoinginstances. In addition, the articles “a” and “an” as used in thisapplication and the appended claims should generally be construed tomean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or clear from context tobe directed to a singular form.

Moreover, terms such as “user equipment,” “mobile station,” “mobile,”subscriber station,” “access terminal,” “terminal,” “handset,” “mobiledevice” (and/or terms representing similar terminology) can refer to awireless device utilized by a subscriber or user of a wirelesscommunication service to receive or convey data, control, voice, video,sound, gaming or substantially any data-stream or signaling-stream. Theforegoing terms are utilized interchangeably herein and with referenceto the related drawings.

Furthermore, the terms “user,” “subscriber,” “customer,” “consumer” andthe like are employed interchangeably throughout, unless contextwarrants distinctions among the terms. It should be appreciated thatsuch terms can refer to human entities or automated components supportedthrough artificial intelligence (e.g., a capacity to make inferencebased, at least, on complex mathematical formalisms), which can providesimulated vision, sound recognition and so forth.

As employed herein, the term “processor” can refer to substantially anycomputing processing unit or device comprising, but not limited tocomprising, single-core processors; single-processors with softwaremultithread execution capability; multi-core processors; multi-coreprocessors with software multithread execution capability; multi-coreprocessors with hardware multithread technology; parallel platforms; andparallel platforms with distributed shared memory. Additionally, aprocessor can refer to an integrated circuit, an application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), a digital signal processor (DSP), a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic controller (PLC), acomplex programmable logic device (CPLD), a discrete gate or transistorlogic, discrete hardware components or any combination thereof designedto perform the functions described herein. Processors can exploitnano-scale architectures such as, but not limited to, molecular andquantum-dot based transistors, switches and gates, in order to optimizespace usage or enhance performance of user equipment. A processor canalso be implemented as a combination of computing processing units.

As used herein, terms such as “data storage,” data storage,” “database,”and substantially any other information storage component relevant tooperation and functionality of a component, refer to “memorycomponents,” or entities embodied in a “memory” or components comprisingthe memory. It will be appreciated that the memory components orcomputer-readable storage media, described herein can be either volatilememory or nonvolatile memory or can include both volatile andnonvolatile memory.

What has been described above includes mere examples of variousembodiments. It is, of course, not possible to describe everyconceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes ofdescribing these examples, but one of ordinary skill in the art canrecognize that many further combinations and permutations of the presentembodiments are possible. Accordingly, the embodiments disclosed and/orclaimed herein are intended to embrace all such alterations,modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes”is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term isintended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as“comprising” is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in aclaim.

In addition, a flow diagram may include a “start” and/or “continue”indication. The “start” and “continue” indications reflect that thesteps presented can optionally be incorporated in or otherwise used inconjunction with other routines. In this context, “start” indicates thebeginning of the first step presented and may be preceded by otheractivities not specifically shown. Further, the “continue” indicationreflects that the steps presented may be performed multiple times and/ormay be succeeded by other activities not specifically shown. Further,while a flow diagram indicates an ordering of steps, other orderings arelikewise possible provided that the principles of causality aremaintained.

As may also be used herein, the term(s) “operably coupled to,” “coupledto,” and/or “coupling” includes direct coupling between items and/orindirect coupling between items via one or more intervening items. Suchitems and intervening items include, but are not limited to, junctions,communication paths, components, circuit elements, circuits, functionalblocks, and/or devices. As an example of indirect coupling, a signalconveyed from a first item to a second item may be modified by one ormore intervening items by modifying the form, nature or format ofinformation in a signal, while one or more elements of the informationin the signal are nevertheless conveyed in a manner than can berecognized by the second item. In a further example of indirectcoupling, an action in a first item can cause a reaction on the seconditem, as a result of actions and/or reactions in one or more interveningitems.

Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, it should be appreciated that any arrangement which achieves thesame or similar purpose may be substituted for the embodiments describedor shown by the subject disclosure. The subject disclosure is intendedto cover any and all adaptations or variations of various embodiments.Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments notspecifically described herein, can be used in the subject disclosure.For instance, one or more features from one or more embodiments can becombined with one or more features of one or more other embodiments. Inone or more embodiments, features that are positively recited can alsobe negatively recited and excluded from the embodiment with or withoutreplacement by another structural and/or functional feature. The stepsor functions described with respect to the embodiments of the subjectdisclosure can be performed in any order. The steps or functionsdescribed with respect to the embodiments of the subject disclosure canbe performed alone or in combination with other steps or functions ofthe subject disclosure, as well as from other embodiments or from othersteps that have not been described in the subject disclosure. Further,more than or less than all the features described with respect to anembodiment can also be utilized.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device, comprising: a processing systemincluding a processor; and a memory that stores executable instructionsthat, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance ofoperations, the operations comprising: receiving a manifest for a pointcloud, wherein the point cloud is partitioned into a plurality of cells,and wherein the manifest provides a center and a number of points ofeach cell of the plurality of cells; determining an occlusion level fora cell of the plurality of cells with respect to a predicted viewport;reducing a point density for the cell based on the occlusion level,thereby determining a reduced point density; and requesting delivery ofpoints in the cell, based on the reduced point density.
 2. The device ofclaim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: identifying othercells of the plurality of cells that are occluded with respect to thepredicted viewport; calculating a respective occlusion level for eachcell of the other cells identified; and reducing the point density ineach of the other cells based on the respective occlusion level, therebyforming a reduced density point cloud from the point cloud.
 3. Thedevice of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise: receivingthe reduced density point cloud from a server across a network; andrendering the reduced density point cloud.
 4. The device of claim 2,wherein the point density in the cell is reduced by removing apercentage of randomly selected points based on the occlusion level. 5.The device of claim 4, wherein the occlusion level has a first rangefrom 3 to zero, and the percentage has a second range from 60% to zero.6. The device of claim 5, wherein the occlusion level is determined by:identifying closer surrounding cells with respect to the cell, whereinthe closer surrounding cells are cells in the plurality of cells thatsurround the cell, intersect a ray between the cell and a predictedviewpoint, and are closer to the predicted viewpoint than the cell;determining a total number of the closer surrounding cells; determininga most-dense closer surrounding cell of the closer surrounding cells,wherein the most-dense closer surrounding cell has more points thanevery other cell of the closer surrounding cells; calculating a ratio ofa first number of points in the most-dense closer surrounding cell and asecond number of points in the cell; and calculating the occlusion levelof the cell as a function of the total number of the closer surroundingcells and the ratio.
 7. The device of claim 6, wherein the occlusionlevel is a result of the function, wherein the function is dependent ona comparison between a product and a range of parameters, and whereinthe product comprises the ratio times a beta factor raised to a power ofa difference between one and the total number of the closer surroundingcells.
 8. The device of claim 7, wherein the beta factor is between zeroand one.
 9. The device of claim 8, wherein the beta factor is 0.8. 10.The device of claim 9, wherein the result is zero if the product is lessthan a lowest parameter of the range of the parameters, one if theproduct is between the lowest parameter and 1.0, two if the product isbetween 1.0 and a highest parameter in the range of the parameters, andthree if the product is greater than the highest parameter, wherein thelowest parameter is less than 1.0, and wherein the highest parameter isgreater than 1.0.
 11. The device of claim 10, wherein the lowestparameter is greater than zero and the highest parameter is less than20.
 12. The device of claim 11, wherein the lowest parameter is 0.6 andthe highest parameter is 3.0.
 13. A non-transitory machine-readablemedium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by aprocessing system including a processor, facilitate performance ofoperations, the operations comprising: receiving a manifest for a pointcloud, wherein the point cloud is partitioned into a plurality of cells,and wherein the manifest provides a center and a number of points ofeach cell of the plurality of cells; determining an occlusion level fora cell of the plurality of cells with respect to a predicted viewport;reducing a point density for the cell based on the occlusion level,thereby determining a reduced point density; and requesting delivery ofpoints in the cell, based on the reduced point density.
 14. Themachine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the requesting removes apercentage of randomly selected points from the cell based on theocclusion level.
 15. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, whereinthe occlusion level is a finite integer having a first range from 3 tozero, and the percentage has a second range from 60% to zerocorresponding to the occlusion level.
 16. The machine-readable medium ofclaim 15, wherein the operations further comprise: identifying closersurrounding cells with respect to the cell, wherein the closersurrounding cells are cells in the plurality of cells that surround thecell, intersect a ray between the cell and a predicted viewpoint, andare closer to the predicted viewpoint than the cell; determining a totalnumber of the closer surrounding cells; determining a most-dense closersurrounding cell of the closer surrounding cells, wherein the most-densecloser surrounding cell has more points than every other cell of thecloser surrounding cells; calculating a ratio of a first number ofpoints in the most-dense closer surrounding cell and a second number ofpoints in the cell; and calculating the occlusion level of the cell as afunction of the total number of the closer surrounding cells and theratio.
 17. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein theocclusion level is a result of the function, wherein the function maps acomparison between a product and a range of parameters to the result,and wherein the product comprises the ratio times a beta factor raisedto a power of a difference between one and the total number of thecloser surrounding cells.
 18. The machine-readable medium of claim 17,wherein the beta factor is 0.8, and wherein the result is zero if theproduct is less than 0.6, one if the product is between 0.6 and 1.0, twoif the product is between 1.0 and 3.0, and three if the product isgreater than 3.0.
 19. A method for streaming a point cloud, comprising:receiving, by a processing system including a processor, a manifest forthe point cloud, wherein the point cloud is partitioned into a pluralityof cells, and wherein the manifest provides a center and a number ofpoints of each cell of the plurality of cells; identifying, by theprocessing system, an occlusion level for a cell of the plurality ofcells with respect to a predicted viewport; reducing, by the processingsystem, a point density for the cell based on the occlusion level,thereby determining a reduced point density; and requesting delivery ofthe points in the cell by the processing system, based on the reducedpoint density.
 20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:identifying, by the processing system, closer surrounding cells withrespect to the cell, wherein the closer surrounding cells are in theplurality of cells that surround the cell, intersect a ray between thecell and a predicted viewpoint, and are closer to the predictedviewpoint than the cell; determining, by the processing system, a totalnumber of the closer surrounding cells; determining, by the processingsystem, a most-dense closer surrounding cell of the closer surroundingcells, wherein the most-dense closer surrounding cell has more pointsthan every other cell of the closer surrounding cells; calculating, bythe processing system, a ratio of a first number of points in themost-dense closer surrounding cell and a second number of points in thecell; and calculating, by the processing system, the occlusion level ofthe cell as a function of the total number of the closer surroundingcells and the ratio.